Making Mobile Home Renovation Takes Serious Planning
Making Mobile Home Renovation Takes Serious Planning
The standards for manufactured housing have been vastly improves over the past few years and most will live a long time before any improvements are needed. However, after a few years many owners look to make mobile home renovation a priority. Reasons can vary from a growing family that needs more room or a shrinking family that wants to provide better use for the existing space.
When planning a mobile home renovation, there are a few significant differences than when planning a renovation in a traditional home. One of the benefits when making a mobile home renovation is the lack of structural support beams in the center of the home. In a traditional home, interior walls are designed to only separate spaces, but also to provide support for the roof. On mobile homes, the roof typically supported by the sides of the trailer.
If a person is thinking about a mobile home renovation to open up more living space, they may consider eliminating another small room in the home, adjacent to the main living room. For example, if there is a bedroom on one end of the room, the wall separating them can be removed, adding that much more floor space to the living room.
Be Cautious Of Creating Unnecessary Openings
When removing a complete wall in a mobile home renovation, you have to be careful not to create openings for critters, walking or flying, that could be misunderstood as an invitation to unwanted guests. Floors in mobile homes are not known for being too thick and due to their usually exposure to the outside, they may be weaker than in a traditional structure with exterior basement protection.
Removing a wall can create a weak section of the floor if you're not careful when pulling nails or removing screws. Make sure that any small holes created are properly filled before any new flooring is placed inside the home, to prevent the possibility of insects getting inside. Additionally, any adjacent walls remaining, will have to be renovated so as not to bear witness to the mobile home renovation project.
Adding a porch to the outside of the mobile home is easy enough, provided you remember to treat as a separate structure and not try to incorporate it into the structure of the mobile home. To complete this type of mobile home renovation, the porch can be constructed as a free-standing unit, connected to the exterior of the home.